The present invention relates to a device for reviewing the flight plan of an aircraft, in particular of a transport plane.
It is known that the dialog between a pilot of an aircraft and systems of said aircraft, in particular the flight management system FMS, can be carried out by way of a data display and input console MCDU (xe2x80x9cMultipurpose Control and Display Unitxe2x80x9d).
This MCDU console is used in particular to carry out a review of the flight plan of the aircraft. For this purpose, this MCDU console includes, in particular at least:
display means capable of depicting, on at least one presentation screen, a flight plan page comprising a flight plan which includes at least waypoints which the aircraft must overfly, information (altitude, speed, etc.) relating to these waypoints, as well as information pertaining to segments between the waypoints; and
actuatable means of review making it possible to carry out a review of the flight plan and comprising at least:
first means of control making it possible to access review pages, from which reviews can be carried out; and
second means of control for carrying out these reviews from said review pages.
Usually, the reviewing of a flight plan can consist in deleting or adding waypoints, in modifying the position of waypoints or of characteristics (time, speed, altitude) pertaining to these waypoints or to said segments.
Generally, such an MCDU console is based, as far as the interaction with an operator is concerned, on the known so-called xe2x80x9cline keysxe2x80x9d technology. One is aware that with such technology, the number of possible actions starting from a page which is depicted on the presentation screen is limited to the number of line keys. Starting from a page, the commands, the data entries and the accesses to other pages, which are available by depressing a line key, are indicated on the line corresponding to the key. Access to information or to additional commands therefore makes it necessary to open a new page, replacing the previous one. Consequently, a page containing a great many commands contains little information and a page containing a great deal of information can offer only a few commands. The depicting of the information of a page is constrained by this mechanization. The number of pages is therefore very considerable and navigation between the pages demands a complex tree.
As far as the reviewing of the flight plan is concerned, with such an MCDU console, the modifications are made starting from a waypoint. The possible modifications starting from a waypoint are performed in review pages specific to each review. These review pages are accessible from two intermediate pages, one depicting the lateral reviews, the other depicting the vertical reviews.
Consequently, it is necessary to go via an intermediate page in order to access the review pages. Moreover, this is the one and only possible access to said review pages. Furthermore, said intermediate page differs depending on whether one wishes to carry out a lateral review or a vertical review.
In addition, alterations of the dialog between a pilot of an aircraft and systems of said aircraft, carried out by way of an MCDU data display and input console, are not convenient, since the introduction of new information and/or of new commands makes it very often necessary to create new pages and to change the tree of the pages.
The document FR-2 677 149 discloses a method and a device making it possible to remedy certain drawbacks of such an MCDU console, essentially as regards the reviewing of the flight plan, and more especially the following drawbacks of the MCDU console:
the necessity to have to input characters on an alphanumeric keypad so as to modify the flight plan; and
the fact of having to monitor two screens, namely the screen of the MCDU console which is of xe2x80x9chead downxe2x80x9d type and that of xe2x80x9chead upxe2x80x9d type of the ND display (xe2x80x9cNavigation Displayxe2x80x9d) of the flight management system, on which is represented the plot of the course of the aircraft which is formulated in a horizontal plane from waypoints which the pilot has selected during the flight preparation.
To do this, this known document FR-2 677 149 effects a coupling between the two aforesaid items of equipment, which makes it possible to obtain on a single presentation screen (the screen of the ND display), in addition to the geographical representation of the flight plan initially selected by the pilot (that is to say of the aforesaid plot of the course of the aircraft):
a responsive zone associated with each point of the screen;
function regions relating to four different modes of review, namely:
a mode for inserting a new point into the flight plan;
a mode for defining a point toward which the aircraft must be directed starting from its current position;
a mode for erasing a point; and
a mode for deleting a discontinuity; and
a luminous index, whose displacements on the screen are controlled by an action of the pilot on a designating device, in such a way as to be able to bring the index onto a responsive region or a zone, the activation of the function corresponding to this region or the selection of a point of said zone being obtained by an action of the pilot on an enabling facility.
The activation of a function region makes it possible to access the review mode relating to this function region, while the activation of a responsive zone of a point of the screen makes it possible to take this point into account in the plot of the course. Thus, it is no longer necessary to input alphanumeric data to designate a waypoint and introduce it into said plot.
However, by coupling the two items of equipment ND and MCDU, it is the course plot initially presented on the display ND which is taken into account, not the flight plan of the MCDU console, to implement one of the aforesaid modes of review.
Moreover, this known device does not make it possible to access review pages. Specifically, only the four aforesaid modes of review are accessible from the first page and, moreover, access to these various modes always keeps the plot of the course on the screen so that the modes displayed do not correspond to the aforesaid usual review pages (such as they exist on the MCDU console).
The object of the present invention is to remedy these drawbacks. It relates to a device for reviewing the flight plan of an aircraft, exhibiting improved access (easier and more varied) to the review pages.
To this end, according to the invention, the device for reviewing the flight plan of an aircraft, in particular of a transport plane, said device comprising at least:
display means capable of depicting, on at least one presentation screen, a flight plan page comprising a flight plan which includes at least waypoints which the aircraft must overfly, as well as information relating to these waypoints; and
actuatable means of review making it possible to carry out a review of said flight plan and comprising at least:
first means of control making it possible to access review pages, from which reviews can be carried out; and
second means of control for carrying out these reviews from said review pages,
is noteworthy in that said presentation screen includes at least one interactive window, comprising responsive objects, wherein said first means of control are formed in such a way as to be able to designate a responsive object and enable it, and wherein said display means are formed in such a way that the flight plan page which is capable of being depicted on said presentation screen furthermore includes:
at least one characteristic sign indicating a review menu;
first responsive objects which correspond to responsive objects relating to a drop-down (review) menu and which are provided at the level of said waypoints and of said characteristic sign, the designating and the enabling of one of said first responsive objects automatically controlling the dropping down, over the flight plan page, of said drop-down (review) menu; and
second responsive objects which correspond to responsive objects associated respectively with particular review pages and which are provided on said review menu when it has dropped down, the designating and the enabling of one of said second responsive objects automatically controlling access to the review page which is associated with this second responsive object.
Thus, by virtue of the invention, it is possible to access the review pages both via said characteristic sign (indicating the review menu) and via said waypoints, from the flight plan page. Moreover, this access is direct, without going via an intermediate page.
Furthermore, the use of a drop-down (review) menu exhibits a dual advantage:
when it has not dropped down, its extent on the flight plan page is restricted to said characteristic sign; and
when it has dropped down, it makes it possible to portray a large number of second responsive objects allowing access to the various review pages.
In addition, the device according to the invention can be readily altered by simple software modifications. Moreover, the number of different function commands from a page is not limited by hardware characteristics, such as xe2x80x9cline keysxe2x80x9d for example.
Within the framework of the present invention, the expression xe2x80x9cinteractive windowxe2x80x9d is understood to mean a window which comprises responsive objects (points, regions, alphanumeric values, etc.) which are associated respectively with particular functions (dropping down of a drop-down menu, appearance on the screen of a review page, etc.) and which are, preferably, responsive to the presence of a cursor. Said cursor can be displaced by an appropriate means which can be actuated by an operator of the aircraft, in such a way that it can be brought onto a responsive object so as to designate it or mark it. When a responsive object is designated, that is to say when the cursor is brought onto it, said responsive object is marked or highlighted, in particular through a change of appearance such as a change of color or increased brightness for example. Said responsive object is then said to be furnished with an xe2x80x9cobject markerxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cfocusxe2x80x9d. The enabling (with the aid of an appropriate actuatable means) of a responsive object which is furnished with such an object marker triggers the execution of the function which is associated with said responsive object.
Also, in a preferred embodiment, said first means of control making it possible to access review pages, include:
at least one actuatable means of displacement, capable of displacing a cursor over said interactive window in such a way as to designate a responsive object; and
at least one actuatable enabling means, capable of enabling a responsive object which is designated by way of said cursor in such a way as to cause the execution of the function which is associated with said responsive object.
Advantageously, said display means are formed in such a way:
that a review page, which is accessed by designating and enabling the first responsive object which is associated with said characteristic sign relating to the review menu, includes no preselected waypoint. Access to a review page without specifying the waypoint is sometimes beneficial in practice, in particular when the reviews are not linked with a particular waypoint; and/or
that a review page, which is accessed by designating and enabling a first responsive object which is associated with a particular waypoint of said flight plan, includes a preselection of this waypoint. This makes it possible to avoid errors of selection or of entry of the waypoint.
Furthermore, advantageously, said display means are formed in such a way that the flight plan page includes, in addition, third responsive objects which are provided at the level of at least some of said information (altitude, etc.) relating to the waypoints and which correspond to responsive objects associated respectively with particular review pages from which it is possible to carry out the review of this information. Consequently, the designating and the enabling of one of said third responsive objects automatically control access to the review page from which it is possible to carry out the review of the information which is associated with this third responsive object.
Thus, an operator (pilot, copilot, etc.) can in a single action designate which type of review he wishes to undertake and to which waypoint this review is to be applied. In this case, access to the review pages does not involve the dropping down of the aforesaid drop-down menu.
By virtue of these latter characteristics (third responsive objects), the number of actions is reduced and a third manner of accessing the review pages is obtained.
In addition, advantageously, said display means are formed in such a way that the flight plan page includes, in addition, information pertaining to segments between waypoints and that the waypoints are depicted successively in one and the same direction (preferably from top to bottom) on a first column, and said information is depicted successively in the same direction (from top to bottom) on a second column.
This makes it easier to read and understand the flight plan, in particular as compared with the usual depiction which is carried out on an MCDU console where the information pertaining to a segment between two waypoints is depicted on an intermediate line between two main lines (depicting information relating respectively to these two waypoints).
The present invention also relates to an aircraft dialog system, making it possible to carry out a plurality of actions, of which one is the reviewing of the flight plan.
According to the invention, said dialog system is noteworthy in that it includes the aforesaid characteristics of the device for reviewing the flight plan and in that said display means are formed in such a way as to display on the presentation screen, permanently and independently of the page which is depicted on said presentation screen, at least one menu bar including a plurality of responsive objects respectively associated with information pages, the designating and the enabling of one of said responsive objects automatically controlling direct access to the information page which is associated with said responsive object.
This menu bar, permanent and independent of the page which is depicted, replaces the function buttons of the MCDU console, which function buttons, as is known, allow direct access to the most frequently used pages, but are limited in number.
Access via a menu bar makes it possible to dispense with this limitation and to provide for direct access to a larger number of pages. Moreover, the use of such a menu bar of software type makes it possible to alter the definition of the dialog system in accordance with the invention, by way of simple software modifications.